On August 3, President Chen Shui-bian stirred controversy by remarks he made via teleconferencing to the 29th annual meeting of the World Federation of Taiwanese Associations, held in Tokyo.

He stated that Taiwan is a sovereign, independent country. It is not a local government or province of another country, nor can it be another Hong Kong or Macau. "There is Taiwan on one side and China on the other side of the Taiwan Strait, there is one country on each side. This should be clear." He added that the "one China principle" and "one country, two systems" idea proposed by mainland China would mean a change in the status quo for Taiwan, which would be unacceptable. Only the Taiwanese people have the right to decide their own future, he said. He also said: "I sincerely call upon and encourage everyone to give thought to the importance and urgency of initiating referendum legislation."

These remarks generated intensive discussion among commentators in Taiwan and abroad. In Japan, the media printed the news in large-type headlines. They interpreted President Chen's remarks as being a major statement intended to break the current deadlock in cross-strait relations.

The various political parties in Taiwan outside the government (which is currently in the hands of the Democratic Progressive Party, or DPP) also expressed their views on the idea of "one country on each side."

Former ROC president Lee Teng-hui, currently the spiritual leader of the Taiwan Solidarity Union, offered support. He pointed out that Chen's formula is similar to his own idea, expressed while he was an office, of a "special state-to-state relationship" between Taiwan and mainland China. He said that Taiwan is a sovereign and independent country, and that its relations with mainland China are in fact country-to-country. Taiwan does not belong to any other country, and only in this way can Taiwan survive and develop.

Lien Chan, chairman of the opposition Kuomintang, was extremely critical. He said that President Chen's ideas of "one country on each side and promotion of a referendum" aimed at destroying the integrity of the country's status as established in the Constitution. Even more seriously, he said, such heedless advocacy of Taiwan's sovereignty to the international community also provides a powerful excuse to hawks in Communist China. Lien also said that President Chen's comments turned his recent effort at "synchronization of party [DPP] and government" into "synchronization of party, government, and Taiwan independence."

James Soong, chairman of the opposition People First Party, called on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to exercise self-restraint, and not carelessly do anything that could lead to war. He stated that maintaining the status quo of freedom and democracy is the mainstream of public opinion in Taiwan society. Therefore, if President Chen and the DPP government aim to use a referendum to change the status quo, this would go against mainstream opinion. Not only would this not resolve any problems, it could create serious misunderstandings, so, said Soong, President Chen should come forward to clarify his statement.

Surprisingly, neither the US nor PRC made any immediate response to President Chen's remarks. Nonetheless, responding to appeals, Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) provided further explanations.

MAC chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen pointed out that Taiwan's mainland policy has continuity and coherence, and said that people should not "overinterpret" the president's recent remarks as a move back toward "the party platform of Taiwan independence" or "building an independent nation." President Chen's purpose in saying that "there is one country on each side and that this must be clear" is simply to emphasize that the ROC is a sovereign independent country that cannot be downgraded, marginalized, or treated as a local government.

Tsai pointed out that not only has mainland China made no concrete and clear response to the many friendly gestures made by Taiwan in recent years, it has continued in the diplomatic arena to attempt to isolate and suppress Taiwan. In addition, militarily it has never renounced using armed force against Taiwan and has significantly strengthened its military deployments facing Taiwan. Taiwan hopes that mainland China will not repeatedly adopt measures aimed at damaging cross-strait relations to test the bottom line or last resort of policy on the Taiwan side.

As for the question of "the urgency of referendum legislation," Tsai stated that there are already a number of bills in the legislature on the subject. The position of the executive branch of the government is to respect the operations of the Legislative Yuan.

After delivering these explanations, Tsai immediately left to accompany Premier Yu Shyi-kun on a visit to the Americas, including a stopover in the US during which explanations were made to the US regarding Taiwan's current cross-strait policy.

After the MAC's clarifications, White House National Security Council spokesman John McCormack held a press conference in which he reiterated the US' "one China" policy, called on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait to resume dialog as early as possible, and emphasized that "the US does not support Taiwan independence." He said that the US would continue to fulfill its obligations under the Taiwan Relations Act, and that there has been no change from the comment made by President Bush last April that the US would do everything it could to assist in the defense of Taiwan.

Mainland China expressed its attitude through action. On August 13, for the first time in 53 years of Chinese Communist rule, joint exercises were held in Shanghai combining air defense and civil defense. The premise of the exercises was that Taiwan had declared independence and launched an attack on major installations in Shanghai. Liang Guanglie, commander of the Nanjing Military Region, in comments made after the exercises were over, assailed the idea of "one country on each side."

Of the many commentaries pro and con, one which attracted considerable attention was that written by Wu Yu-shan, director of the Institute of Political Science at the Academia Sinica. Wu pointed out that the current equilibrium of "mainland China does not resort to armed force, Taiwan does not declare independence" is a balance supported by the US. He said that it would be unacceptable to the international community for either mainland China to resort to the threat of armed force for any other reason than a declaration of Taiwan independence, or for Taiwan to declare independence for any other reason than in response to the use of armed force by mainland China. As a result, people should be cautious about making controversial statements related to the question of national identity.

It was originally thought that the "one country on each side" formula would spark a reconfiguration in the tri-lateral US-PRC-ROC relationship. But after the explanations made by the MAC, there was no obvious impact on the triangular relationship. Nonetheless, scholars expressed hope that after the current wave of controversy subsides, both government and opposition parties in Taiwan will try to find more common ground on the question of national identity.

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Speaking via teleconferencing to the World Federation of Taiwanese Associations, President Chen Shui-bian proposed a formula of "one country on each side" of the Taiwan Strait, sparking much commentary home and abroad. (courtesy of the Office of the President)